Handling Grief

Tragedies happen? "Why?”  Why does God allow bad things to happen? 

Grief is a multifaceted response to loss, particularly to the loss of someone or something to which a bond was formed.  Grief is a natural response to loss. It is the emotional suffering one feels when something or someone the individual loves is taken away. Grief is also a reaction to any loss. The grief associated with death is familiar to most people, but we grieve in connection with a variety of losses throughout our lives, such as unemployment, ill health or the end of a relationship. 

Every step of the grieving process is natural and healthy. It is only when a person gets stuck in one step for a long period of time that the grieving can become unhealthy, destructive and even dangerous. Going through the grieving process is not the same for everyone, but everyone does have a common goal; acceptance of the loss and to keep moving forward. The process is different for every person and can involve a wide range of feelings, thoughts, and behaviours. The goal of grieving is not the elimination of all the pain or the memories of the loss. The goal is to reorganise one’s life, so the loss is an important part of life rather than its centre. There is not a right or a wrong way to grieve.  Everyone grieves differently.  

As a Christian, while I grieve I turn to God’s Word to find strength and comfort. The book of Proverbs says "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not unto your own understanding" The more you know God, the more you will trust God. What is there not to trust? He is completely loving, wise, powerful, and good, but it is one thing to express a belief in God, and another to actually trust in him with all your heart. Trusting the Lord with all your heart means walking out, by faith, on his Word, no matter what consequences or opposition you may face.

Trusting God wholeheartedly also means resolutely refusing to lean on your own understanding. This, of course, does not mean that we are to give up the sound mind and reasoning spirit that God has given us. But it does mean that we are not to rely on our limited knowledge, experience, and emotions to guide us safely through life.

The question to ask yourself is this: do you trust God in precisely those places where your natural inclination is strongest against his leadership or direction or commandments? When the Bible clearly spells out his counsel, will you take it regardless of your personal preferences or preconceptions?

It is precisely at those places where we are least inclined to listen to or follow God that we are most able to show our devotion to him and our trust of him. Is there an area of your life today in which you have the opportunity to trust in the Lord, rather than in your own understanding? If so, cast all your cares upon Him because He's the only One who really does care for you.

Written by a Guest Blogger

Someone's looking for you

In this busy world, where so many prying eyes are frequently upon us, it is difficult to escape the surveillance that we are so often under. Transactions carried out, using our credit cards, mean that we can be easily tracked and our movements monitored. CCTV cameras are everywhere and with sites like Google Earth, very little remains secret; complete strangers can visit our homes and move down our streets, undetected. "Big Brother Is Watching!"

Is your life being refined?

This blog really only applies to those who are saved and trusting in Jesus Christ for their eternal welfare. It may have an application in measure to others in the experiences of life but you can't claim that God is working in your life and seeking to refine you if you don't trust Him for your destiny in the next life.

For many people there is an unanswered question in life. ‘If God really loves us why does he allow storms to come into our lives at all?’ Two reasons. First, we bring many of our problems on ourselves. Someone has said, ‘If you could kick the person responsible for most of your troubles in the backside, you wouldn’t be able to sit down for two weeks’.

How to survive in 2020?

There’s only one way to survive in this world today - trust in God! 

Surrounded as they were by aggressive and powerful nations, there was only one way for God’s people, Israel, to survive in the promised land God had given them. The history of the children of Israel is pretty much a dismal record of how they didn’t trust their Lord. In fact their history includes a period in which they were kicked out of their land for persistently refusing to go God‘s way, but the flip side is that it is also an amazing record of God’s patient plans with people who fail big time and of God’s amazing willingness to use weak people who do trust their God. 

GPS

Perhaps there are many who do not know what the initial letters used as the heading of this article mean. They are used as a short way of describing the ‘Global Positioning System’. When this device was developed it caused the manner in which directions to desired destinations were found to be rethought. It was very useful on a vast range of journeys, both terrestrial and stellar. The ability to pinpoint a house while riding a bicycle, either in a very large housing estate or a remote rural dwelling, or to know exactly the location of a satellite hurtling through space, is quite amazing.

The Hand of God

In 1986 during a football match between Argentina and England Diego Maradona claimed to have scored a goal but television replays revealed that he had not headed the ball but had used his hand to hit the ball passed Peter Shilton, the goalkeeper, and into the net.  He celebrated scoring the goal which the referee and linesman allowed.  This caused much controversy and Maradona said that it was 'the hand of God' that scored the goal.  Did Maradona foolishly suggest that he was God or did he state that God allowed him to score the goal with his hand?  It blatantly was an act of deception and even four years later when he sought to apologise to Peter Shilton he would not accept his apology. 

Some people today are asking the question 'Is the Coronavirus a direct judgment from the hand of God'?  Or what is it?  This poses the question whether the virus is the direct will of God or the permissive will of God.  Maradona mistakenly thought that God would use deception in his direct or permissive will.  When Gods hand is seen in judgment it is directed against people who have violated his laws and behaved in gross wickedness.  The fatal effect of COVID19 is global affecting people from every race and creed and born again believers among them so we conclude that it is not Gods direct will.  In Daniel chapter 5 we read of King Belshazzar  in Babylon, celebrating a great feast and using the holy vessels from the temple in Jerusalem to drink wine and exalt his false gods.  He was startled when the fingers of a mans hand was seen writing upon the plaster of the wall .  The translated words were 'you are weighed in the balances and found wanting'.  He died that night.  Jesus said that the finger of God is the Holy Spirit, Luke 11:20, therefore it was Gods hand that pronounced the judgment upon Belshazzar.  

One feels that COVID19 is not the direct judgment of God but rather in his permissive will he is allowing it as a wake up call to all the nations of the world to be aware that he is about to intervene in the world with global judgments, ie the great tribulation.  What we are experiencing today is totally unprecedented.  Throughout the whole world, streets in the main towns and cities are empty of people.  Nations finances have plummeted and borrowing will exceed levels ever seen before.  

Lockdown has restricted travel and the aircraft are grounded leaving hundreds of aeroplanes parked on the tarmac.  People are asking the question 'when will we get back to normal' and 'what will the new normal be'?  

Presently there are two ex British Prime Ministers who are proposing organisations that will bring all governments in the world under one administration.  Gordon Brown called for a global government to deal with the current crisis.  Brown said the proposed global taskfroce should oversee and support the medical and economic elements of the crisis.  He proposed that the G20 should be expanded to include all countries.  He said 'I would need the executive powers to coordinate the response'.  Similarly Tony Blair (Executive Officer of Institute for Global Change) has also suggested that his organisation which has 250 employees in 25 countries is already advising governments to work together to combat these mammoth issues.  

The call for global government reminds me of the two beasts of Revelation ch 13.  It says of the beast out of the sea in v 7 & 8 '…and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him'  and of the second beast, out of the land it says v16-18 'And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.  Here is wisdom.  Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six' (666).

Peter makes two references to the hand of God.  The first in 1Peter 3 v 21 & 22 '…by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:  Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.'  The right hand of God reveals absolute authority globally and universally.  Christ will ultimately take control of the governance of the world when he returns to earth after the judgments of God have fallen during the Great Tribulation.  Soon he will appear in the air to take the church from earth to heaven and after that the seven year period of Tribulation will begin.  The seven seals, seven trumpets and seven vials are each judgments from the hand of God upon a world that has rejected him.  Peters second reference to the hand of God is in 1 Peter 5 v 5 & 6 '…for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.  Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.' 

W-H-Y?

Just three letters: W-H-Y. 

Why? 

Why so much pain? 

Why so much wickedness? 

Why do people suffer?.. 

Why?Why,?Why? 

Have you ever wrestled with this question? Perhaps you've lost a loved one, or maybe you know of some innocent person who has suffered terribly. And just wondered.. Why?

Well, God's Word, the Bible gives the answer. What brought suffering and pain? Yes, it is the result of man's original sin in the Garden of Eden. 'Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned,' Romans 5:12, the Bible. But perhaps you wonder, why did God allow sin to continue? Couldn't He have stopped it at once and destroyed the sinners? 

The last casualty - WW1

In November 2020 World War I will have ended one hundred and two years ago. The Armistice was signed early in the morning of 11 November 1918, and came into effect a few hours later, at 11a.m. Sadly, several thousand combatants, from both sides, were killed during that short time interval. The last was a soldier called Henry Gunther, who died only one minute before the 11 o’clock deadline. Acting against orders, he charged with his bayonet towards a group of soldiers on the opposing side, who knew that the ceasefire was about to come into force, and tried to wave him off. However he kept approaching, firing shots, so he was shot, and died instantly.

Do you know where you are going?

William Franklin Graham, affectionately known as Billy Graham, was an American Christian evangelist, ordained as a Southern Baptist minister, who rose to celebrity status in 1949 preaching in large indoor and outdoor rallies; sermons were broadcast on radio and television, some still being re-broadcast today.

Billy Graham was chaplin to several Presidents; he was particularly close to Dwight D. Eisenhower and Lyndon Johnson . During the civil rights movement, he began to support integrated seating for his revivals and crusades; in 1957 he invited Martin Luther King, Jr. to preach jointly at at revival meetings in New York City.

Easter in uncertain times

Easter in Uncertain Times

This wasn’t how they thought their Sunday evening would be! They’d had plans for today, and for the future for that matter. Plans that were now dashed with no hope of being achieved. Instead, they were stuck inside, fearful of the hidden danger that sought their lives if they were to venture onto the streets. Not only that, they were grieving. The one who’d brought so much joy to their lives had died on Friday. They hadn’t been there then; they couldn’t be with Him now. What was the future going to hold for them when their whole world was crumbling around them?

COVID-19 - Who can you trust in this crisis?

There’s only one way to survive in this world today - trust in God! And, surrounded as they were by aggressive and powerful nations, there was only one way for God’s people, Israel, to survive in the promised land God had given them. The history of the children of Israel is pretty much a dismal record of how they didn’t trust their Lord. In fact their history includes a period in which they were kicked out of their land for persistently refusing to go God‘s way, but the flip side is that it is also an amazing record of God’s patient plans with people who fail big time and of God’s amazing willingness to use weak people who do trust their God.